Coughlin as a Personnel Man - Reviewed

[Abe Sargent]

A lot of football pundits have been crtics of Tom Coughlin's drafts, and as such many fans think Coughlin was a poor drafter.

Yet, in retrospect, I think he may not have been as bad as other might have thought.

He had one first round draft pick bust - R. Jay Soward. It was a bad pick at the tail end of the first round when Coughlin made a reach. But....

When Coughlin was bitched at by the media, Mel Kiper, and draft reviews for selecting Marcus Stroud instead of Kenyatta Walker. The Jags supposedly needed an OT more than a DT, and Kenyatta Waler had fallen to the Jags.

This year, Marcus Stroud is going to the Pro Bowl and the Jags had the second best running defense in the league. Kenyatta Walker is in and out of the starting lineup. He made the pick against the pundits and was right, at least through three years.

He selected John Henderson ahead of Albert Haynesworth, and again, the Jags had the second best rushing defense with Henderson helping to plug up the middle.

Donovin Darius, who many talent scouts feel is a poor strong safety in tonday's pass heavy game, had close to a Pro Bowl year as well.

Add in Pro Bowlers like Tony Boselli, Tony Brackens and Kevin Hardy - all drafted by Coughlin.


And he helped draft an offensive line that gave up very few sacks this year using picks like Brad Meester (a Pro Bowl snub at the center position), Maurice Williams and Mike Pearson.

Fred Taylor, another Coughlin pick, only rushed for 1572 yards this season, his second consecutive season where he started every game, thus proving that he was not the chronicly injured fellow that Coughlin supposedly drafted.

QB David Garrard is supposedly being shopped around this offseason by the Jags and there are several teams interested because he was so improved this season, thus showing that Coughlin can find and grow other QBs.

Akin Ayodele has done very well at LB this year, a Coughlin pick. Fernando Bryant has been a good corner for the team every year since he was drafted. He has few picks but loads of passes defensed.

Chris Hanson was in the Pro Bowl last year as a punter.

In fact, Tom's drafts seem very good when held up against leaguewide scrutinity.


Just for thought.


-Anxiety

[rkmsuf]

I haven't heard all the much negative about his drafts or player decisions.

What did him in was that hard ass coaches have a limited shelf life. Eventually the players tune him out which is what happened in JAX.

Seems a perfect fit for the Giants...

[Die Hand die Verletzt]

Tom is a good coach.

I am a Jaguar fan asn I was glad they got rid of him when they did. The team needed a change. But I have nothing but respect for what Tom did for our franchise. He showed us how to win and did it fast.

He would be great for the Giants, I think.

[Chief Rum]

I have never really given much thought or heard much commentary about Coughlin's drafting abilities. I could nitpick with some of your examples (isn't Haynesworth also a part of a terrific run defense? Boselli, Taylor were easy and obvious picks, etc.), but I'm sure you're right that the guy has done some good things in the draft, and if he's getting rippied on in your neck of the woods because of poor drafting ability, than that is probably quite a bit unwarranted.

That said, that R.J. Soward move was one of the big time draft boners of all time, even at the end of the first round. The guy was barely a blip on the national radar screen at USC (I mean, he was there and played decently well, but no one was falling over themselves for that guy). I seem to remember he was a complainer at USC, too (although that could be my UCLA bias talking), and not really a team player. He definitely never fulfilled the potential he was said to have coming out of high school.

Point being, as just some uninterested fan, I knew Soward was a bust waiting to happen. How could Coughlin have messed up that bad? I was stunned when Soward went in the first round. When he was for all intents and purposes out of football a couple years later because of drug problems and what not, I wasn't shocked at all. Just an absolute waste of a pick, and I have to think someone was telling Coughlin about all this before he picked the guy.

But, hey, we all get a mulligan, right? (or we all should ).

CR